Everyone who walks with God has a story to tell. The stories may be different but one thing remains true – the experience you get along the journey leaves you with something to tell. Growing up, I thought my story would start on a high note and end like a fairy tale. It is what the preachers said on Sunday or at least the only parts I picked out. ‘Everything will be okay,’ they reiterated to our young and eager souls, a perfect way to keep us on our toes – waiting for tomorrow to come; excited about the beauty it concealed. Then life happened and storms of life hit so hard that they left me wondering if something was wrong with me or with my Faith. My story hit a pause button and I needed more than anything else to find out how other people were fairing – and for those who had made it, how they had avoided these storms and lived to tell their beautiful stories.

Therefore, I picked up my bible and began to go through the pages. And I realised it was full of people going through different stages of life, but they all had one common attribute: This grit like – bordering stubborn – Faith in God. Men like Job who were bold enough to tell God, ‘Kill me if you want, but I am not going anywhere [paraphrase]’. At the end of their lives, each learnt something about God and testified on the same thing: His never-ending Faithfulness to His word and His people. There is a plethora of men and women to write about but today I picked out three of them – all women (we will definitely look at the men another time!). Meet Hagar, Hannah, and the woman with the bleeding disease.

Hagar. We meet her in Genesis and in her story; she starts out as a slave to Abraham and Sarah. When Sarah and Abraham failed to have a child, they resorted to bringing her on board so she could bear a child for them. When she became pregnant, she started to forget her status and overlook her mistress. Sarah would not take it and started to treat her harshly. Unable to endure the harsh treatment, Hagar ran away. She ran into the desert alone and pregnant, unsure of the way to her home. After a long walk and with a lot of despair she rested near a well where an Angel found her. He asked her to go back and submit to Sarah, her mistress and he gave her the assurance that all would be well for her and the son that she would bear, even going as far as telling her that her son would have a great inheritance. What stands out for me is her response; ‘I have now seen the one who sees me (Genesis 16:13)‘; and she gave God a name ‘You are the God who sees‘. Hagar learnt on that day, after years of feeling unseen and unvalued, that God also saw her. There was a God who did not just see her master and mistress, but a God who saw slaves as well! So if Hagar could write her story, it would go: There is a God who sees me even when men do not see me.

Hannah. We meet Hannah in the book of Samuel. She starts out as a barren woman mocked by her co-wife for something that was not even her fault. Her predicament was the same year in and year out, and Hannah was always in tears. One day when she went with her husband to Shiloh to worship, she prayed so fervently that the priest Eli thought she was drunk. However, this time something different happened. Heaven answered! She bore a son, Samuel, who went on to become the voice of God in Israel for as long as he lived. When Hannah came to give thanks, she prayed, ‘He lifts the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap and sets them among princes and makes them inherit the throne of Glory (1 Samuel 2:8)‘. Hannah saw God take a despised barren woman and crown her with His Goodness. So if Hannah could write her story, it would go: There is a God who lifts us up, takes away the shame and pain, and fills us with laughter.

The woman with the bleeding disease. Her story is found in the gospel of Matthew, Mark and Luke. None of them is kind enough to tell us her name. All they say is that she had a bleeding disease for 12 years. One day she got the news that Jesus was coming to town and she joined the crowd coming to see him. Her Faith propelled her to touch Jesus’ cloak and when she did, she was healed immediately. Jesus then turned around and asked, ‘Who touched me?’. After a short search, she came forward and he told her; ‘Daughter, your Faith has made you well. Go in peace (Luke 8:48)‘. For many years, this woman’s identity and her story were tied to her disease, unable to even go to the temple. She was only one thing: the sick bleeding woman. However, that day Jesus called her something else: Daughter. Her Faith not only healed her but also led her to understand that her identity was not that of the sick bleeding woman, but she was a child of the most high God. So if this unnamed woman could write her story, it would go: There is a God who calls me His own.

Hagar’s story starts as a slave, Hannah as a barren woman and the woman with a bleeding disease without an identity. And yet they are the ones we read about today; who give us hope that our stories can change and they can end well. Studying these people’s stories helped me understand how I will tell my own story. That at every stage of life, God stayed Faithful and that the areas that caused me the most pain and shame – stories I wish were never known or told – that is where God started from. He started to mold and like the perfect molder He is, I trust He will make something beautiful out of my life. I will write that: when I was weak, I was made strong; when I was poor, I was made rich – for that is what the Lord has done for me. Therefore, when I tell my story, it will not be from a weak, shameful, and defeated perspective; but it will be full of the times when God came through.

The story I will tell will be of a God who stayed Faithful – even to me.